Visual Arts from Canada & Around the World

Donut Rush: Baking with Swarovski crystals

Jae Yong Kim may look the part but don’t let the baker’s trays fool you. These donuts are fired clay, glazed and sprinkled d with Swarovski crystals, gold luster and white gold.

The New Jersey artist’s confections have distinctive colors, appliques and shapes (including a Disney version) that align with pop culture – the drips of Jackson Pollack, for instance, or Yayoi Kusama’s dots.

The Lyons Wier Gallery, where Pop Goes the Donut runs through May 14, 2016, asks whether Kim’s creations are “a caustic comment on the art world’s rampant strides towards mass consumerism or possibly a poignant statement about the gluttonous effects of an over caloric ‘art’ community or is it simply a treat?”